What’s the NUG and why is Myanmar so angry at Malaysia for supporting it?

When it comes down to our international relationships, Malaysia tends to remain diplomatic on most things. However, we can be pretty involved in matters pertaining to ASEAN and issues within the Southeast Asian region, one of which being the Military takeover in Myanmar that has been ongoing since last year; an issue that our country has been pretty vocal about.

In fact, our country’s foreign ministry very recently managed to peeve off the Burmese Military Junta who called us “irresponsible and reckless” after our country’s proposal for ASEAN to engage with the NUG (National Unity Government) in Myanmar… but what even is the NUG and why are they so mad at us for being in support of it?

The National Unity Government (NUG) comprises exiled lawmakers and MP’s that were overthrown by the military.

We’re not going to delve into the history of how and why the whole thing went down, since we’ve already kind of written an article on that in the past (which you can read here!) But to put it simply, the Myanmar military had launched a coup d’etat and took over the country on the 1st of February 2021, where they declared a state of emergency and detained a number of state officials, including ruling party leaders and Myanmar’s elected leader at the time, Aung San Suu Kyi.

After taking over the country, the military junta (known as the State Administration Council [SAC]) committed a bunch of atrocities such as controlling the media, imposing curfews, restricting gatherings, and even killing over 1500 civilians- with nearly 8800 people believed to be in custody.

Since then, there have been many efforts by the people of Myanmar to take their country back; from large-scale protests on the streets of Myanmar to armed rebel groups who’ve actively fought against the junta… However, their biggest threat yet might actually be the newly-formed National Unity Government (NUG).

Just like its name, the National Unity Government is a unity government in exile. This basically means that it’s a legitimate government that consists of all parties in the legislature, but is currently unable to exercise any sort of legal power and instead resides in a foreign country.

Currently, the NUG of Myanmar is comprised of overthrown lawmakers, ethnic armed insurgent groups, along with other anti-coup protestors and minor political parties, and it aims to get rid of the military rule in Myanmar. The unity government has gained major support from the people of Myanmar, despite the SAC declaring them illegal and referring to them as a “terrorist organization”

Since its formation, the NUG has actively sought to be internationally recognized as the ‘rightful’ government of Myanmar… and Malaysia’s recent proposal might actually end up supporting it. Here’s why…

Malaysia wants ASEAN to connect with the NUG instead of the military junta.

Like we mentioned earlier, the whole reason why our foreign ministry has angered the SAC is because we proposed for ASEAN to establish an informal engagement with the NUG. This is because the proposal, which focuses on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Myanmar, could bring the NUG one step closer to being recognized internationally as the government of Myanmar.

But according to our foreign ministry, the proposal was only made in response to the military junta’s lack of progress and cooperation with the ASEAN five-point consensus (5PC) peace plan, despite them agreeing to it in April of last year.

In summary, the plan calls for the regime to end the violence and resolve the political crisis in Myanmar with these 5 main points, which we will include below for your reference:

1. First, there shall be immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar and all parties shall exercise utmost restraint.
2. Second, constructive dialogue among all parties concerned shall commence to seek a peaceful solution in the interests of the people.
3. Third, a special envoy of the ASEAN Chair shall facilitate mediation of the dialogue process, with the assistance of the Secretary General of ASEAN.
4. Fourth, ASEAN shall provide humanitarian assistance through the AHA Centre.
5. Fifth, the special envoy and delegation shall visit Myanmar to meet with all parties concerned.

TL;DR, the plan wants the Military Junta to stop with all the violence and want to have an open political dialogue involving all parties (including members of the exiled government/opposition).

However, since the military junta has not been co-operating with the peace plan, they were even excluded from the ASEAN Leader’s Summit, who chose to elect a non-political representative from Myanmar instead of allowing the Military General to attend. Ouch.

So, with Malaysia being one of the first ASEAN countries to take a step towards engaging with the NUG, there is a chance that the others might start to follow suit… which then begs the question:

What will this mean for Malaysia-Myanmar relations in the future?

Even before the coup happened, our country has always had a little bit of a turbulent relationship with Myanmar. One of the most notable incidents being our country’s criticism of Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya, which resulted in a protest rally led by our ex-PM Najib, in 2016.

And now with the entire Military Junta takeover, and our country’s apparent support for NUG, tensions have grown even higher between Malaysia and the current ruling party of Myanmar since our recent move might be taking them a step further from having a seat at the international table.

But whether or not this might spell any trouble for us in the future, it’s great that our administation is taking the initiative and spearheading the movement in providing some form of assistance to the people living in our neighbouring countries.